This narrow passageway turned and twisted and opened into a valley that amazed Venters.
Here again was a sweep of purple sage, richer than upon the higher levels.

The valley was miles long, several wide, and inclosed by unscalable walls.

But it was the background of this valley that so forcibly struck him.

Across the sage-flat rose a strange up-flinging of yellow rocks.

He could not tell which were close and which were distant.
Scrawled mounds of stone, like mountain waves, seemed to roll up to steep bare slopes and towers.
In this plain of sage Venters flushed birds and rabbits, and when he had proceeded about a mile he caught sight of the bobbing white tails of a herd of running antelope.